SPORTS

STARKVILLE -- The template is set, and David Fair doesn't care if it means he has to be everywhere to execute it.
On Saturday, Fair showed he and his teammates on the Starkville High School defense are up to the challenge.

STARKVILLE -- The difference in the huddles was noticeable.
On one side, a coach told his players they are a "four-quarter team" and encouraged the silent bunch to keep its head up.
Down the left sideline, a giddy group of Wildcats couldn't contain themselves as they celebrated.

STARKVILLE -- Josh Williams hasn't taken a lot of snaps with the Aberdeen High School varsity football team.
But Williams doesn't need to spend a lot off time under center to know size when he sees -- and feels -- it.

OXFORD -- The University of Mississippi football team took to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium Saturday night for a 105-play scrimmage in front of a crowd of approximately 2,000 fans, including 250 former Ole Miss student-athletes on campus for the M-Club reunion weekend.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama football team held the first scrimmage of the 2011 camp Saturday afternoon in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The scrimmage lasted more than two hours and started with one period of 7-on-7 before the team moved to 11-on-11 drills that included regular game situations, third-down situations, red area, goal line, coming out, and two-minute.

PARIS, France -- The Mississippi State men's basketball team opened its European trip with a double-digit victory, and it concluded it with another one Saturday with a 99-71 victory against the French team Stade De Vanves.

It's finally here, and it just so happens it will be played on an even bigger stage.
Six area teams will participate today in the second annual New Hope Jamboree at Mississippi State's Davis Wade Stadium.

It isn't Tabitha Beard's style to sugar coat things, so she isn't going to start this season.
Beard grew up in a New Hope High School softball program that prided itself on winning championships. As coach, she has continued that tradition, leading the Lady Trojans' slow-pitch team to its fourth state title in a row (second in Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A), and 13th overall, last season.

Following an intensive two-day retreat of approximately 50 Division I college leaders, a clear message was sent to athletic programs: If you're not willing to compete in the classroom, your school won't have the opportunity to do the same on the playing field.

STARKVILLE -- Mississippi State offensive line coach John Hevesy is looking left a lot more often they he's used to.
In the past, the guarantee Hevesy had was things were solid at left tackle thanks to the player Dan Mullen said last year was "his best football player": Derek Sherrod.

ANTWERPEN, Belgium - Second-half dominance keyed by a staunch defensive effort has been a common theme for the Mississippi State men's basketball team in its European Tour.
That was the case Thursday night against perennial Division II power St. Jan, as MSU flexed its muscles in the final 20 minutes en route to a 88-63 victory at the Sporthal Linkeroever.

OXFORD -- Matthew Mott is eager to put the growing pains behind him.
A year ago, Mott hadn't met eight of his new players on the University of Mississippi women's soccer team. His transition from assistant coach at the University of Texas to Ole Miss came at a late juncture and forced everyone associated with the program to adjust.

OXFORD -- University of Mississippi football coach Houston Nutt has raved constantly about his incoming freshman class, saying it's one of the most talented groups he has had in 14 years of coaching in the Southeastern Conference.
It better be because it appears he'll have to use it immediately.

Troy King had a feeling a call would come.
Still, after two years working to teach children in Macon how to play tennis, King took precautions. After the Macon QuickStarts 10-and-under tennis team came up short in a first-place tiebreaker with Tupelo, neither King nor his wife, Tonya, told the seven players on their team there still was a chance they would get to go to regionals.